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<title>Can't I Just Ignore It? by MythologyPastry</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24036664">Can't I Just Ignore It?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythologyPastry/pseuds/MythologyPastry'>MythologyPastry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Coronavirus, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, Food, Friendship/Love, Gay Rights, Long-Distance Friendship, Long-Distance Relationship, Love Confessions, No Lesbians Die, Online Romance, POV Second Person, Phone Calls &amp; Telephones, Pining, Quarantine, Texting, This Is STUPID, Useless Lesbians, and just pure lesbian energy, i love me some stupid bitches, she's stupid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:29:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,285</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24036664</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythologyPastry/pseuds/MythologyPastry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You're really good friends until you let something slip, and faced with an uncomfortable situation, you fail a bit.</p><p>She makes it up for you, though.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Female Character/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Mistake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She's older than you by a few years, and you think, at first, that she's a tad weird. You two meet through an online chatroom, and she is quiet and sweet. The topics at first are pretty usual: games, the chat room, and whatever you feel like discussing. And you love, love, to talk.</p><p> </p><p>You're not easily bored. Dolores, or Lola as you met her, is fascinating. She might not talk much, but when she does, she speaks with such decision. It's comforting to meet someone who truly believes in what they're saying. She never tells you anything personal, not without some prior setup, so you eagerly ask whatever generic questions you can to fill the space.</p><p> </p><p>She likes animals but doesn't want one right now. Her apartment is too small, and her lease doesn't allow pets anyway. She loves the color red, and she sends you the picture of her many, many red nail polishes to prove it. But, she also throws in a picture of a few blue ones too. She says it helps for variety. You just wonder which color she'd wear to meet you.</p><p> </p><p>You've talked about it, of course. You're just out of college with a degree in HR, and she's an architect. She tells you she doesn't mind her job while you message her during her work, but that if she could go back to her youth, she would have picked something else. Not because she isn't happy, but just because she wants more variety. You don't quite understand it, but you accept it. You still call her your favorite architect though. That will never change.</p><p> </p><p>"We could go to Disney together," She says once, when you're both just brainstorming what to do together. She grew up in a small Midwestern town, and you're from Louisiana, and you think that both of your accents are pretty cute together. However, you still can't stand how she says vague. It drives you crazy.</p><p> </p><p>She lives in Chicago now. It's not that far. After the quarantine, maybe you could set something up. Your stimulus check goes towards paying the bills while you look for any job, anything, that might help you now. You didn't expect to graduate in the middle of a pandemic, so you don't feel too bad for being unprepared. But she hasn't spend her twelve hundred just yet. You think it might be selfish to ask her to pay for the majority of your get-together, but she already buys you games from time to time. When you lie in bed and fantasize, you think she would love the excuse to spend more money on you. The only reason she hasn't yet is because you're stubborn and don't want the handout.</p><p> </p><p>But you're fresh out of college and want to fuck a woman from Chicago, so you'll take what you can get. Also, you're pretty sure her family is filthy rich. You're all for eating the rich, but you didn't think it would be so literal.</p><p> </p><p>You haven't hit on her. Well, you haven't hit on her <em>hard</em>. You tease like it's your business, and you keep pushing buttons in hopes that one day she'll just undo them. You've seen pictures, but you've only seen her on cam once, and it made you more frustrated than a family reunion. She smiled, and panned the camera down to her lap to show you some new thing of hers. But if you're being honest, you don't even remember what it was. You just know that she was real, and she smiled, and she finally trusted you enough to turn on the camera.</p><p> </p><p>It's been months since that now. You can't remember exactly when you met, but you know it was around three years ago, but this texting? Talking all day? That's newer. Maybe seven months.</p><p> </p><p>You are addicted to the feeling you get when there's a notification. Sometimes you hesitate to open them, just to savor the satisfaction of her messaging back. You love it though, every bit of it. You even love it when you send messages just to see that she's busy, just to see that she's away from her phone.</p><p> </p><p>God, you have gotten boring just sitting at home. Your parents probably think you're unbearable now. You crave the gym, so now you spend your time stretching and dancing around your basement. At least when you're down here they don't complain about the noise as much. The music of choice lately is punk rock.</p><p> </p><p>Just for fun, you send her a picture while you sit with your legs stretched out in front of you. You're wearing a cute pair of shorts with rainbow detailing and an anklet. You pout while it loads, because you hate how much paler you've gotten. Normally you would have a deeper tan around now.</p><p> </p><p>You finish some basic stretches, including this sumo pose that makes you want to die, and you feel complete. You're sweaty and gross though. A shower is definitely needed. There's some unopened body scrub you have yet to try, so maybe that's nice.</p><p> </p><p>You look at your phone screen and see three messages.</p><p> </p><p>Hello</p><p>I'm leaving my cousin's house</p><p>If you wanna talk, I'm free</p><p> </p><p>You press call and brainstorm something witty for when she picks up, but your brain stalls when she answers. Luckily, Lola takes the lead. "Hey, I just dropped some groceries by my cousin. Just walking home now."</p><p> </p><p>"That sounds nice! Did you get anything good for yourself?"</p><p> </p><p>She pauses, and you can lightly hear the sound of her jostling her phone. "Uh, I got some bread? I wanted to make more french toast." Yum. You love that shit with some peach syrup.</p><p> </p><p>"You gonna put maple syrup on them?"</p><p> </p><p>"Not sure. Maybe powdered sugar?" Oh, ew. She's one of those people.</p><p> </p><p>"So you're one of those people," You say, drawing out the syllables like a kid learning to read. "One of those people who don't appreciate the effort it takes to make good french toast."</p><p> </p><p>She snorts. "Ginny, who made you the food god?"</p><p> </p><p>"Goddess," You emphasize. "And, me, of course! Who else is going to keep you from making bad decisions? You need me."</p><p> </p><p>"No, what I need is powdered sugar on my french toast. Look, I'm gonna have to go. My phone's about to die, but I need to call my mom about something before I forget. I'll talk to you when I get home, okay?"</p><p> </p><p>"Cool, see you then. Bye, love you!"</p><p> </p><p>She hangs up. You drop your phone in your lap. And then, you panic. You are either the biggest dumbass to ever live, or something else only slightly less worse.</p><p> </p><p>No. You're just a dumbass. Fuck. You flop onto your back and stretch out your arms as you think about what to do. But there's no good answer, and you realize, like many times in life, you're gonna have to talk this one out.</p><p> </p><p>"Goddamn it."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. An Understanding</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You scrub yourself down in the shower, because you're a mess, and you feel your blood rushing everywhere, especially in your face.</p><p>Fuck, you're an idiot. How do you talk yourself out of this one? Who says the first I love you over the phone? She's going to think you're ridiculous, that you're too childish. You are not a child, but you note that maybe you sound like one.</p><p>If you're lucky, maybe Lola thinks you mean it in a platonic way. Or if you're even luckier, you come out of your shower to have her messaging you with the flirtiest, dirtiest messages. But, you're not that lucky. You know that. She's not like that. She's never even given you a hint that she would want you like that. You know for a fact that she likes women; you've asked the right questions to find that out. Her last ex threw out her favorite dishes, and she never looked back.</p><p>You don't understand how someone could ruin a relationship with someone, with Lola, over some old family china. It wasn't even ugly. You've seen the pictures.</p><p>You huff when you step out of the bathroom and get fully dressed before you look at where you tossed your phone. You put on your favorite socks, the ones with purple kitties, because you know that you'll need some comfort for what is about to come.</p><p>But before you look at your phone, you press lightly on your cheeks. The shower's cold water may have helped, but they're already hot again. You curse and flail your arms around in frustration before picking up the phone. </p><p>You have no new notifications.</p><p>
  <em>Fuck.</em>
</p><p>You pull up your messages, and you don't even think about asking her if she's busy. You click call like your life depends on it, both hands clutched around the pink of your phone case. It struggles to connect at first, but then it starts to dial, and she picks up just a few seconds later.</p><p>"Hello," she says, food in her mouth.</p><p>"Hey, uh, do you want me to call you back later? When you're not eating?"</p><p>She doesn't respond for a few seconds, but you can hear fumbling in the background. Eventually, she responds, her voice less clear, "No, that's okay. I put you on speaker."</p><p>"I'm sorry for making things awkward. I always do that; we can forget about it, if you want." You wince at the pause. She'll think you're desperate if you hint too hard.</p><p>There's a significant moment of silence. "Ginny, I don't get it. What are you talking about?"</p><p>"Well, you heard me." You burn a little inside. Maybe not a little. Maybe a lot. If she wants you to forget, she's going to have to be clear. "Don't just pretend it didn't happen."</p><p>"Gin, I'm not pretending anything. I'm just eating french toast; what are you talking about?"</p><p>You bring one of your hands, your left one, to your hair and tug lightly. "I know you're this brilliant architect woman, and I'm just some nerd from the internet, but I did mean what I said. You might just be my friend from the internet, but I do love you."</p><p>Her plate clatters, and you lean forward, listening for any other sounds of her reaction. There's more fumbling, and suddenly her voice is very deep in your ear. "And when, exactly, did you say that?"</p><p>You squeeze your thighs together at her tone. She sounds exquisite. "After you said you had to go?"</p><p>"No," she says hotly, "You just said bye, and I hung up."</p><p>You go still, a forest fire growing in your heart. "Um, but I did say it after. Maybe you, um, missed it?"</p><p>She breathes heavily into the mic at that, and that fire migrates south, and you would feel silly, but you've been aroused for stupider reasons. Lola doesn't say anything, so you explore, just a little bit. "Are you mad?"</p><p>"No. No, I'm not mad. <em>Of course not</em>. You're a very emotional person."</p><p>Well, that's true. You still twitch, just a bit, at that description. "It feels nice to have finally said it aloud," you admit quietly. "I felt bad not telling you, sometimes. It makes me feel like a bad friend."</p><p>"You're a good friend. You like blankets, right?" Her question is fast, like she can't believe what she's saying.</p><p>You frown at the sudden switch. "Well, wait a minute, I know you don't like feeling jams, but-"</p><p>"Right?"</p><p>You grumble a bit before answering, "Yes, I like blankets."</p><p>"Great." You can hear the smile in her voice. "Then I'll make sure you'll have enough. You've been applying for jobs, but they're all online interviews right now. You don't have to be in Atlanta for that."</p><p>You don't say anything. She continues, "And I've been social distancing, so I'm not too worried."</p><p>One, you're not quite sure that's how it works. Two, what? "Are you inviting me to move in with you?"</p><p>Lola hums. "<em>Nope</em>, but I am inviting you to come stay with me. I don't want to say anything back to you without a proper date, first."</p><p>"Oh my god."</p><p>"Mhm," she says slowly. "I would normally take a girl out for something fancy, but I think we can figure something out at home. I did promise you a backrub once, didn't I?"</p><p>You laugh. "That was a joke."</p><p>"Not anymore it isn't."</p><p>The reality of what she's saying sinks into you, and you bite your lip a bit. "Oh? So you're willing to let a virtual stranger stay in your apartment, and to lure her in, you're promising bodily contact?"</p><p>Lola's smugness radiates from your speakers as she says, "Ginny, I would do anything to your body that you wanted."</p><p>You genuinely whimper at that. It's been imagined, quite a few times now. "I don't have a car," you point out nervously. "I can't get to Chicago."</p><p>"A plane would be faster. But, you know." She goes serious. "If offer to pay for the rental, will you consider it?"</p><p>Oh, now it's your time to tease. "Oh, Lola, I'm already deciding what to pack. You can't back out now."</p><p>She laughs, and you decide that's so great that you laugh too. You say, "I'm a mess."</p><p>"I know. I like you anyway." And it's said with such firm conviction, you almost think she'd like you less if you weren't such a mess. "I'm going to hang up now and price some options. You can call me on discord if you like."</p><p>"I will. I'll talk to you in a bit.."</p><p>"Bye, Gin."</p><p>"Bye."</p><p>And she hangs up, and you squeal, and you can't start up your laptop fast enough.</p>
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